Tuesday, December 31, 2013

With over 40 participants, you are surely to find wonderful inspiration through this blog hop. It makes a circle so if you are starting here just continue until you make your way back and you will have made it through them all. If you have already started and are coming fromDawn Heuft's blog, "Stamp Til Dawn", then you are on the right track.January's stamp of the month brings back memories of one of my first "addicted" hobby...cross stitching. I think back to when I first got married 21 years ago (aaahhhhh...the days before children...when there was less housework and distractions and a whole lot more down time...lol). While my hubby and I were watching tv, I would color. Yes. Color. Like crayola and coloring books. And yes, my hubby made fun of me...some things don't change. Then somehow I discovered cross stitching. Although I can't remember how I came to select cross stitching, I recall that I loved how a colorful x here and a colorful x there ended up creating a beautiful picture in the end. Then...about four years later...I was pregnant with my first child and my friend introduced me to scrapbooking. A year later, in searching for difficult to find scrapbook supplies, I discovered stamping and that was "all she wrote" (as my Granny would say). I've been scrapping and stamping ever since.I'm always amazed at how the creative process can work. With this stamp set, I started with the idea in my head after seeing this sketch at Mojo Monday. I began to create my "vision" to only decide that I hated it, so I took my card in a slightly different direction. The final thing I needed to do with my card was decide on an embellishment to go with the sentiment. I tried stamping the heart stamp on different colored paper, different arrangements, etc. Yuck! Didn't like it. As obvious as it seems now, it took a little while for me to think "Buttons!". After going through my shameful collection of buttons and adding them to my card, I ended up with a project that I love.

Pick up your own Stamp of the Month for only $17.95 OR this month only you can get it for FREE with a $50 purchase! Be sure to contact your Close To My Heart Independent Consultant to get yours. If you don't already have a consultant, I'd love to be yours. You can find details on the "Stamp of the Month" by clicking on the "Promotions" tab at the top of the page or purchase your SOTM here. Of course, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

If you have time, take a moment or two to check out the rest of my blog. If you enjoy your visit, then please consider "Following Me", signing up to receive blog updates, and/or leaving a comment (we all love comments...the nice ones anyway), then be sure to continue along on the hop by heading over to my insanely creative friend's blog, Jen Patrick's, @ "Roxybonds" and check out her creation.

If for some reason you get lost along the way, you can always find a list of all this month's CTMH SOTM Blog Hop participants on Kathleen's blog.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

With winter break in full swing...thank heavens...I have been trying to get caught up with some of my crafting. In the last couple of days, I've created four more precut kits and plan on another four in the next few days. :)

So just as a reminder...
My precut kits are $15 each, plus $5 shipping for long distance customers. Purchase both layouts in a series for only $25, saving $5 (almost 17%)! You'll also save on shipping, because there is no additional shipping for the second layout. Your kit will include all of the precut paper and embellishments seen in the layout photo. The only thing you will need is adhesive and possibly scissors for trimming twine, trim, ribbon, etc. I use quite a bit of foam tape in my designs, however, you can always forgo that element. My kits also come with full-color instructions.

Here are the two kits using Close To My Heart's Frosted paper.

The first one is called "All Bundled Up". This kit will include all of the paper, except the Colonial White, which are shown here to represent the suggested photo placement. The Sky cardstock will come to you already inked. Although covered in my example with Colonial White cardstock, the inked, Sky cardstock continues onto the right page to allow for ultimate flexibility. In addition, I created the snowflake border using CTMH's Artbooking Cricut cartridge and the Cricut Craft Room and it will come to you already glittered. If you'd rather not have glitter on it, simply shoot me an email when you place your kit order.

The second layout in this Frosted series is called "Fallen Snow". This kit will include all of the paper, except the Colonial White mats, which are merely shown here to represent the suggested photo placement.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Years ago, I sold paper piecing kits and premade pages on Ebay and worked with a friend making page kits. We often dreamed of making a larger scale business out of it at Expo's and other scrapbooking shows. However, they remained just that...dreams. This friend and I attend all the scrapbook shows we can and tend to spend the majority of our money on page kits. Honestly, I love page kits! I love that someone else has done the work and all I have to do is assemble. Typically, when I attend crops, I take my kits to work on, because I don't have to worry about taking all my embellishments, paper, etc., because the kits already have what I need.Over the past several months, I had several ladies share with me their desires for scrapbooking projects. In essence, they were looking for quicker layouts that did not have any stamping and projects where everything, except the assembly, was pretty much done for them. As one customer said, "I don't want any left-over supplies. I just want the layouts that I can put together with minimal tools and supplies and smack my photos down."With these things in mind, I decided to start a club called "Just the Basics" where the attendees make original layouts using precut paper with only the needed embellishments. For my regular "Beyond the Basics" Workshop-on-the-Go customers, I added the Just the Basic kits whenever they added the Complements/MyStickease to their monthly wotg orders as a way to show my appreciation for their loyalty.So now I'm going to offer these layouts here on my blog for ordering. You'll always be able to find the details at the top of my blog under the tab "Kit of the Month" so you don't have to scroll through multiple posts to locate the information. You can select the layouts individually for $15 or select both layouts in a series for $25. Each kit comes with everything you need to create the layouts (minus tools), as well as full color pictures and instructions. Shipping is a flat $5. Sorry, but I'm only shipping to the U.S. at this time. The first one I'll share with you is the Huntington Layout #1, called "Simply Delightful".

The Layout #2 in the Huntington series is "A Joyous Life".

Pre-cut Kit - Huntington Options - Local

Pre-cut Kit - Huntington Options - Long Distance

Here is the Laughing Lola Layout #1, called "That was Epic". (I used a sanding block to distress the papers.)

Here is the Laughing Lola Layout #2, called "Follow Your Heart".

Pre-cut Kit - Laughing Lola Options - Local

Pre-cut Kit - Laughing Lola Options - Long Distance

If you should get a "sold out" message, please feel free to email me and I will let you know if more will be available. The ability to create additional "sold out" kits will depend largely on the availability of the supplies.If you are a CTMH consultant and would like the cutting guide and instructions for any of these layouts, simply place a $10 order (per guide) on my website and I'll email you the pdf files for the project of your choice. So if you want two project guides, place a $20 order; three project guides, $30, etc. Since this is my first time offering kits through my blog, I'm bound to have missed some detail. So please feel free to leave a comment or email me with questions. Until next time...

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Well, maybe you've noticed I've been fairly absent the last few months. Maybe not. Even though it may seem that I haven't created much of anything in the last few months, I have managed to squeeze in a few things here and there for my clubs. So I thought I would share with you some of the cards I made several months ago (way back in August, I think) using Close To My Heart's Laughing Lola collection.All these cards were inspired by Close To My Heart's "Make It from Your Heart" How-to Pattern book series...Volume 1 and Volume 2.Here they are all together...

This card is similar...a near CASE...to the card pictured for pattern #25 Card in the first volume.

My final card is based on Pattern 24 in the second volume. I outright stole the ribbon and border stamp from the sample card...even used the same sentiment. ;) (Didn't realize my ribbon was frayed when I took the picture. Farsightedness got me again!)

I have a few more projects that I will post at another time. Hopefully, I will have even more to create AND share once school is out for winter break, because I'll have more time. I can hardly wait! Let's just hope I don't spend it sick. ;)Until next time...